Roger Payne: the British Mountaineer killed in Mont Maudit avalanche

Roger Payne, who died alongside two Britons and six other climbers in the
French Alps, was an avalanche instructor who had climbed routes in the Alps
every year from 1977.

3:37AM BST 13 Jul 2012

The former British Mountaineering Council (BMC) general secretary had been a qualified mountain guide since 1983 and had taken part in more than 20 expeditions to high and difficult peaks across the Karakoram and Himalayan ranges, including K2.

He had also climbed in North and South America, BMC vice president Ed Douglas wrote on the council's website.

Mr Payne was a former president of the British Mountain Guides, an avalanche instructor and held coaching badges in a range of other outdoor sports.

He also had a strong interest in the mountain environment, working on projects with the United Nations on climate change.

In addition, he was involved in raising awareness about the conflict on the Siachen Glacier between India and Pakistan.

Mr Payne first discovered climbing through the Scouts in Hammersmith, west London.

He began climbing around the UK and, after taking an education degree, developed a career as a teacher and instructor.

Roger Payne

Mr Payne undertook his first expedition with his wife, New Zealand-born guide Julie-Ann Clyma, in Peru in 1986.

During the next 25 years, Mr Payne and Ms Clyma embarked on some of the most significant British expeditions of the last two decades, notably to the north face of Changabang, in the Himalayas in 1996, according to Mr Douglas

In 1993, Mr Payne and Ms Clyma were part of a team on K2 along with Victor Saunders, who helped in the rescue on Mont Maudit this morning.

In a distinguished list of achievements, the couple became the first to make it to the summit of Mount Grovesnor in China in 2003.

A link from Mr Payne and Ms Clyma's own website takes users to a page he set up which is devoted to avalanche training.

It includes an online training course, equipment guidance and links to other courses by international mountain guides.

Part of the home page reads: ''The structure and content of the training programme has been developed by Roger Payne with contributions from a small group of international mountain guides who are experienced avalanche instructors working in the European Alps.''

Over the years, Mr Payne was also involved in strengthening mountaineering's links with the Olympic movement and film-making.

Mr Payne was an experienced mountain guide

Writing on the BMC website, Mr Douglas said: ''Wherever you were in the world - in an alpine hut, a film festival in the States or a committee meeting in Manchester - you were pleased to see him. He will be sorely missed.''

Dave Turnbull, the current chief executive of the BMC, said the mountaineering world was "shocked and saddened" by his tragic death.

"Roger was one of the UK's most enthusiastic and respected climbers, with a track record of Alpine and Himalayan mountaineering stretching back to the 1980s," he added.

Kenton Cool, a leading Alpine climber who knew Mr Payne, described him as "one of the very best mountain guides" and said he was "stunned into a silence" after hearing the news.

He told the BBC: "Roger was a very cautious, incredibly experienced guide. This is going to send shockwaves through certainly the British guiding fraternity and the French one - a very close-knit French community in Chamonix."

British mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington also paid tribute, saying the climber, who had taken part in more than 20 expeditions to the world's highest and most challenging peaks, was "a very special person."